Ethereal Light: The Art of Fluid Expression
The material comes alive on the canvas through the play of light, delicately breaking and traveling through each form and wave crafted by this refined artist. Abstract paintings, often in soft whites or iridescent hues, offer a tactile experience where light takes center stage. As time passes, light transforms the artwork, inviting viewers to witness its shifting essence.
These minimalist pieces create a seamless flow within a space, bringing calm, freedom, and serenity. Acting as windows to an ethereal realm, the light dances across textures, illuminating every corner with its radiant glow. They effortlessly brighten any environment, offering a meditative experience that touches the soul and transforms the surroundings. The interplay of color, form, and light invites a personal dialogue between the artwork and the observer, making each encounter a unique journey.
Ethereal Light: The Art of Fluid Expression
The material comes alive on the canvas through the play of light, delicately breaking and traveling through each form and wave crafted by this refined artist. Abstract paintings, often in soft whites or iridescent hues, offer a tactile experience where light takes center stage. As time passes, light transforms the artwork, inviting viewers to witness its shifting essence.
These minimalist pieces create a seamless flow within a space, bringing calm, freedom, and serenity. Acting as windows to an ethereal realm, the light dances across textures, illuminating every corner with its radiant glow. They effortlessly brighten any environment, offering a meditative experience that touches the soul and transforms the surroundings. The interplay of color, form, and light invites a personal dialogue between the artwork and the observer, making each encounter a unique journey.
Meet The Artist
Qinza Najm
Biography & General Practice
Qinza Najm is a NYC-based Pakistani-American artist, born and raised in Lahore. She holds academic training from Bath University (England) and the Art Students League of New York under the mentorship of Larry Poons. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Queens Museum (NY), Christie’s Art (Dubai), Art|Basel (Miami), and the Museum of the Moving Image (NY), and has been featured in publications like ArtNet News, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, and International Business Week.
Drawing from her background with a Ph.D. in psychology, Najm’s interdisciplinary artistic practice spans painting, performance, video, and installation, and explores themes of migration, displacement, gender, and environmental degradation. Her work uses everyday materials to provoke empathy and reflection, often focusing on the tension between personal trauma and collective healing. The recurring use of South Asian cultural objects, such as the metal "Peyti," becomes a metaphor for belonging, identity, and the fragility of home.
Site- Specific Project Description
Title: Zakhm aur Marham: A Reclamation
Statement:
As part of Lahore Biennale collatral site.
Zakhm aur Marham, I present a salvaged black wooden boat, painted to symbolize both Zakhm (Wound) and Marham (Healing). The boat is suspended in a sea of thousands of recycled Styrofoam packaging cubes, originally used to transport motorbike and rickshaw engines. These stark, rigid forms evoke the image of white ice or glaciers, yet beneath this seemingly pure surface lies the deeper environmental damage caused by industrial waste. The engines these cubes once protected contribute heavily to Lahore’s smog, worsening air quality and fueling the global climate crisis, including rising sea levels.
Site- Specific Project Description
Title: Zakhm aur Marham: A Reclamation
Statement:
As part of Lahore Biennale collatral site.
Zakhm aur Marham, I present a salvaged black wooden boat, painted to symbolize both Zakhm (Wound) and Marham (Healing). The boat is suspended in a sea of thousands of recycled Styrofoam packaging cubes, originally used to transport motorbike and rickshaw engines. These stark, rigid forms evoke the image of white ice or glaciers, yet beneath this seemingly pure surface lies the deeper environmental damage caused by industrial waste. The engines these cubes once protected contribute heavily to Lahore’s smog, worsening air quality and fueling the global climate crisis, including rising sea levels.
Styrofoam, a notoriously difficult material to recycle, is used here not as a solution but as a marker of the complexity of our environmental crisis. Over 8 million tons of plastic enter our oceans each year, reflecting the depth of human consumption. While the recycling of these blocks post-exhibition offers a small step, the tension between reclamation and destruction remains palpable.
The black boat—once abandoned and now restored—becomes a fragile metaphor for humanity’s hope for recovery. Set within the sacred hexagonal space of the Shahi Hammam (Grand Bath), a historical site once used for purification, the installation asks whether healing is possible amidst the damage we’ve already done, or if we are merely adrift in a sea of our own making.
ArtSoch was launched in 2020; since then, the gallery has become a prominent destination for contemporary art from Pakistan. We consistently open exhibitions, featuring a mix of regional and global academic artists from the South Asian diaspora, working in diverse media; whose practices are dynamic in style , rigorously investigated and grasp gist of our time.
OPENING
ADDRESS
Event: Friday, 4 Oct 24
5:00 Pm to 9:00 Pm
Shahi Hamam, Dehli Gate
Walled City Lahore
OPENING
Event: Friday, 4 Oct 24
5:00 Pm to 9:00 Pm
ADDRESS
Shahi Hamam, Dehli Gate
Walled City Lahore